As I mentioned earlier, we’d hired a tour company here to maximize the one full day we had. I’m usually pretty opposed to organized tours, but in this case it sounded like a good idea to fit as much as possible into a one day transit. This turned out to be an excellent choice, especially when we saw how terrible the traffic was in the city. I’d highly recommend the company we used (Memphis Tours, linked in a previous post) to anyone wanting a similar experience.

Pick-up was at the hotel in the morning, and it was just down the road to the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Anyone who wants to visit Egypt, I highly recommend that you do it soon. The tourist hoards are terrified and staying away at the moment (well, maybe not this week due to the riots again) but this is definite time to go. Things are quiet, you have the place to yourself, and you can really enjoy things. On top of that, lots of the touts and salespeople have given up, and it’s possible to really enjoy things and have a completely un-harrassed experience. For all the negative experiences I’ve had people tell me about Cairo – we really enjoyed it! So – the pyramids and the sphinx: